AMD’s next processor architecture is also known as K8L, or Barcelona, and the upcoming launch is of one the most important AMD has ever had to do. Now some more details about Agena and Kuma has appeared, these are the code names of two of the cores AMD is working on, both based on the Barcelona architecture. As expected they are all made with AMD’s 65nm SOI manufacturing process and both Agena and Kuma will have a significantly higher HyperTransport bus at 4.0GHz. The big difference between the two is that Kuma is a dual-core, while Agena comes with four cores.
Other news with the Barcelona architecture are 128Bit floating point unit, new SSE4 instructions and support for DDR2-1066 memory (if JEDEC approves). ChileHardware collaborator Metro has posted some detailed information about Agena and Kuma and even if the information is unofficial it’s very interesting. AMD seems to be aiming for a launch just below 3.0GHz and we’re very eager to see how these will perform in comparison with Intel’s coming 45nm processors, which will sport higher frequencies.
Agena FX:
Q3 2007:
2.7-2.9GHz
2MB L2 total L2 cache for the CPU (quad core so 512KB each core)
2MB shared L3
Socket 1207+
4000MHz hypertransport Bus
TDP not determined yet
65nm SOI
Agena:
Q3 2007:
2.4-2.6GHz
2MB L2 total L2 cache for the CPU (quad core so 512KB each core)
2MB shared L3
Socket AM2+
4000MHz hypertransport Bus
TDP 125W
65nm SOI
Kuma:
Q3 2007:
2.0-2.9GHz
1MB L2 total L2 cache for the CPU (dual core so 512KB each core)
2MB shared L3
Socket AM2+
4000MHz hypertransport Bus
TDP 89w – 65w
65nm SOI
More information can be found in the forum.
